Page 11 of Royal Captive
“Stop this. You’ll burn yourself out.”
The voice was annoyed, and that pissed me off. Arms grabbed me and hauled me up, apparently uncaring and unfeeling of the black flames licking at their skin. I pushed more magick out. More flames.
“Impressive little display, but worthless. Cease your dramatics.”
Nope. Not in a million years, buddy.
A hand smacked me so hard across the face that my lip split, blood trickling down my chin. The fire disappeared, sucked out of existence entirely as my concentration broke. I fell to my knees, suddenly weak and exhausted.
“There. Much better.”
Blearily, I looked up into the face of a fae guard, who was standing with his hands on his hips in front of me. Four more stood in formation behind him, purple-tinted armor and metallic headbands flashing and sparking at me.
“You’re the half-breed from the human realm. No wonder,” the guard snorted, pulling me to my feet as if I were a child.
“Magick doesn’t work on our armor. So it’s quite useless.” He pointed to the headbands and his chest plate, giving it a thunk with knuckles.
The armor looked thinner than a tin cup. Surely I could—
“I wouldn’t do that. Haven’t you done enough?” The fae gestured around him, my gaze following his arms on instinct.
I cringed.
The walls were black ash around us, the doorframes charred and still smoldering. It was a good thing they had taken Eve away, or I likely would have almost killed her.
Again.
I shrunk in against myself. When would I learn to control my anger and my impulses?
“Impressive, nonetheless,” came a different voice. The formation of guards parted automatically as the king stepped through calmly, though his eyes shone with glee. How had he gotten here so quickly? Had he followed us, or was it another fae ability I hadn’t yet seen?
“You remind me of my first daughter. You simply must meet her.” The king grinned, fingers stroking his chin in thought. Gazing at me for a moment, he snapped his fingers suddenly.
“He must have descended from my line. It all makes sense: the power, his physical features … yes, yes!”
The king clapped his hands. “I’ve changed my mind. Bring him back to the palace. Perhaps we can breedhim.”
A fist collided with my jaw, and it felt like I’d been slammed into a brick wall. It didn’t quite knock me out though, just made me wish I was dead.
“Interesting. Hit him again.”
I tried to put my hands up or call out no, but none of it made any difference as the fist slammed into me again, this time knocking me out cold.
Four
EVE
Part of me wanted to follow the girls to ensure they were ok, but the handsy guard behind me made that impossible.
“Are you in charge here?” I asked the new brown-haired Fae. The first one had taken the other humans away. “What’s your name?”
He turned his head over his shoulder to shoot me an odd look. “I’m in charge of intake for the new humans, but certainly not in charge ‘around here.’ I’m Alm. Lord Cassus is out, but Overseer Ranc will see you shortly.” He paused, hesitating, then charged forward. “Watch your tone. I’m not one for hitting the human females, but lots of the other overseers would split your lip if they heard the mouth on you.”
I bristled, but listened to what he said, and not how he said it. He was trying to help, in his own way.
This was Cassus’s manor and his humans. It was true then; he had a vested interest in keeping the games going and stealing away more humans in the fae realm. Was our entire kingdom a joke? Nothing more than chattel?
The manor was clean, but relatively simple inside. Industrious, almost. They’d polished the wooden floors to a shine, but there was no excess on the inside of jewels and gold, nor any shows of overt wealth. The walls were bare stone with only a few vases of wildflowers on pedestals scattered here and there. I kind of liked it.
